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ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE UNITED 
STATES PUBLIC SERVICE RESERVE. 



vA' ^. Department of Labor, 

Washington, D. C. 

To Members of Local Trade- Unions: 

Sirs : This is in large part labor's war. 
Seventy per cent of aU of the huge ex- 
penditures to be made to supply the men 
at the front goes to labor. About five 
men must work to back up each man 
who fights. If we are to win our way 
through war to a peace that will last, 
labor must do it. Labor will do it! 

HOW TO GET THE MEN. 

The problem is a big one. A vast 
number of trained artisans, for example, 
will be needed in building ships for the 
Shipping Board and an almost equal 
number for the Navy. As many more 
are wanted for munitions. To get them 
where they are needed, men must be in- 
duced to leave their peace-time jobs and 
serve the country in industry essential to 
war. 

Somehow the men must be had. Ships 
must be built and yet more ships, or our 
boys at the front will fail for lack of 
munitions and supplies — some brave lad 
you know over there may lose his life 
irom our failure to back him up. To 
build ships needs men. To make arms 
and equipment requires men and ever 
more men. 

29452°-17 



How to get them? Conscription of 
labor is not officially contemplated — will 
not be necessary if labor responds to the 
patriotic appeal and terms of employment 
are made fair and reasonably attractive. 
In the faith that labor is ready to do its 
share, the Department of Labor has 
created as a part of its official organiza- 
tion, but with no compulsion on its mem- 
bers, the United States Pubhc Service 
Reserve. If its plans succeed, no form 
of compulsion will be necessary and the 
war labor problem will be solved with the 
least possible disturbance of existing 
industry. 

WHAT MEMBERSHIP IN THE RESERVE 

MEANS. 

The Public Service Reserve enrolls as 
members men of all classes who want to 
serve to win the war. It asks them mere- 
ly to state their readiness and to put on 
record a brief description of their train- 
ing and ability. It imposes absolutely 
no obhgation. When the Reserve sets out 
to ^et men for the Government, it merely 
notifies those of its members who seem 
qualified — telling them all about the job, 
the wages, and the terms of employment. 
The individual member may take it or 
leave it, as he likes. All that is required 
of him is that he look at the question from 
a patriotic standpoint — realizing that we 
are at war. If he undertakes the work 
he is free to leave at will, if he thinks he 
is justified in view of our country's need. 

The Reserve has no connection with any 
troubles between laboiL^and capital. It 

JAN 2f 1918 



will not undertake to speak either for em- 
ployees or employers. It will not use its 
influence to foster the cause of either. It 
aims simply to have a great reservoir of 
men ready to go, at the suggestion of the 
Department of Labor, when the terms of 
employment are reasonable and satisfac- 
tory, to the posts where the country needs 
them most. It will, too, endeavor to use 
every possible means to so distribute the 
burden that no industry will be crippled or 
imf airly taxed to meet the needs of war. 
Membership in the Reserve does not 
affect the draft. What forms of active 
labor in war industry will entitle a man to 
exemption is for the Ai*my to determine. 

WORK AND PATRIOTISM. 

The man who works on building ships 
or making arms or equipment should 
see in it something more than merely a 
chance to earn high wages. It is patri- 
otic service. It is working for some- 
thing infinitely bigger than himself. It is 
work to win a triumph of democracy and 
civilization over brute cunning and force. 
It is work that deserves comparison with 
that of the soldier fighting at the front. 
The fundamental pm-pose of the Public 
Service Reserve is to get men into war 
work and to keep them working up to 
their maximum of efiiciency, through an 
organized appeal to thek^ patriotism. 

DEMOCRACY'S CALL TO AMERICANS. 

In France, in England, in the lands of 
others of our alhes, there scarcely can 
be f oimd to-day a man who is not devot- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

* 020 930 203 2 

ing his all to the cause oi nis counxry. 
The wonderful resistance of our common 
foe is due in large measure to the complete 
consecration of the individual to the serv- 
ice of the state. If Germany is to be con- 
quered it can not be solely through su- 
perior resources in material and in num- 
bei^ of men. To win an enduring tri- 
umph, democracy must show its capacity 
to light the world with a hotter and 
whiter flame of patriotic devotion than ^ 
autocracy can inspire. ^ 

WHAT YOU CAN DO. 

To can^y out its plans the United States 
Public Service Reserve needs and asks 
the full cooperation of organized labor. 
It wants each local union to recommend a i 
man to act as enrollment agent of the 
reserve, to help enroU men engaged in 
their trades, to help get them ready to go, 
when the caU comes, to the posts where 
our country needs them. It wants mem- 
bers of your trade and your union as 
members of the reserve. 

The situation requires cooperation. 
Neither organized labor nor unorganized 
labor, nor anything short of harmonious 
action by the Nation as a whole, can meet 
the need. Patriotism is confined to no 
class. Disloyalty, apathy, and selfish- 
ness are confined to no class. The rising 
tide of patriotic devotion must carry afl 
classes and aU men into an overwhelming ^ 
demonstration of fervent patriotic en- 
deavor. Each man who reads this leaflet 
can do his part. 

WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1917 



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LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



020 930 203 2 



